NASA's last space shuttle mission blasts off into history

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Atlantis and four astronautsrocketed into orbit Friday on NASA's last space shuttle voyage,dodging bad weather and delighting hundreds of thousands ofspectators on hand to witness the end of an era. It will be at least three years - possibly five or more - beforeastronauts launch again from U.S. soil, and so this final journeyof the shuttle era packed in crowds and roused emotions on a scalenot seen since the Apollo moon shots. After days of gloomy forecasts full of rain and heavy cloudcover, the spaceship lifted off at 11:29 a.m. - just 2½ minuteslate - thundering away on the 135th shuttle mission 30 years andthree months after the very first flight. The four experiencedspace fliers rode Atlantis from the same pad used more than ageneration ago by the Apollo astronauts. The shuttle was visible for 42 seconds before disappearing intothe clouds. NASA waived its own weather rules to allow the liftoff to goforward. In the end, though, the countdown was delayed not by theweather but by the need to verify that the launch pad supportequipment was retracted all the way. The crew will deliver a year's worth of critical supplies to theInternational Space Station and return with as much trash aspossible. Atlantis is scheduled to come home on June 20 after 12days in orbit. Before taking flight, Commander Christopher Ferguson saluted allthose who contributed over the years to the shuttle program. "The shuttle is always going to be a reflection of what a greatnation can do when it dares to be bold and commits to followthrough," he said. "We're not ending the journey today ... we'recompleting a chapter of a journey that will never end." It wasn't clear until the final moments of the countdown thatthe launch would come off. That was fitting in a way, sinceFlorida's famously stormy weather delayed numerous shuttle missions almost from the start of the program and was a major reason spaceflight never became routine, as NASA had hoped for. Hundreds of thousands of spectators jammed Cape Canaveral and surrounding towns for the emotional farewell. Kennedy Space Center itself was packed with shuttle workers, astronauts and 45,000invited guests, the maximum allowed. NASA's original shuttle pilot, Robert Crippen, now 73, was amongthe VIPs. He flew Columbia, along with Apollo 16 moonwalker JohnYoung, on the inaugural test flight in 1981. Other notables on the guest list: a dozen members of Congress,Cabinet members, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fourKennedy family members, Jimmy Buffett, Gloria Estefan and twoformer NASA chiefs. The space shuttle was conceived even as the moon landings were under way, deemed essential for building a permanent space station. NASA brashly promised 50 flights a year - in other words, routine trips into space - and affordable service. But the program suffered two tragic accidents that killed 14astronauts and destroyed two shuttles, Challenger in 1986 andColumbia in 2003. NASA never managed more than nine flights in asingle year. And the total tab was $196 billion, or $1.45 billion aflight. Yet there have been some indisputable payoffs: The InternationalSpace Station would not exist if it were not for the shuttles, andthe Hubble Space Telescope, thanks to repeated tuneups byastronauts, would be a blurry eye in the sky instead of the world'sfinest cosmic photographer. The station is essentially completed, and thus the shuttle'soriginal purpose accomplished. NASA says it is sacrificing theshuttles because there is not enough money to keep the expensivefleet going if the space agency is to aim for asteroids and Mars. Thousands of shuttle workers will be laid off within days ofAtlantis' return, on top of the thousands who already have losttheir jobs. And the three remaining shuttles will become museumpieces. This day of reckoning has been coming since 2004, a year afterthe Columbia tragedy, when President George W. Bush announced the retirement of the shuttle and put NASA on a course back to themoon. President Barack Obama canceled the back-to-the-moon program in favor of trips to an asteroid and Mars. But NASA has yet to work out the details of how it intends toget there, and has not even settled on a spacecraft design. The space shuttle demonstrates America's leadership in space,and "for us to abandon that in favor of nothing is a mistake ofstrategic proportions," lamented former NASA Administrator MichaelGriffin, who led the agency from 2005 to 2008. After Atlantis' lights-out, 33rd flight, private rocketcompanies will take over the job of hauling supplies and astronautsto the space station. The first supply run is targeted for laterthis year, while the first trip with astronauts is projected to beyears away. Until those flights are up and running, American astronauts willbe hitching rides to and from the space station via Russian Soyuzcapsules, at more than $50 million per trip. Russia will supply the rescue vessels for Ferguson and his crewif Atlantis ends up severely damaged in flight. But the Russianspaceships can carry only three people, including two crew members,and any rescue would require a series of back-and-forth trips. Thatis why only four astronauts are flying Atlantis, the smallest crewin decades. That reliance on Russia - with no other backup - has many spaceveterans worried. A contingent of old-time flight directors andastronauts, Crippen included, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve forthe space shuttle, at least until something is ready to take itsplace. Crippen acknowledged it is futile at this point. "I'm afraid that ship has sailed," he said on the eve of thelaunch. But noting the improvements that had been made in theshuttles over the past three decades, he said: "Those vehicles, inmy opinion, could fly for another 30 years and could be flownsafely." This last journey by Atlantis may be stretched to 13 days ifenough power can be conserved. Weather permitting, Atlantis willreturn to Kennedy, where it will be put on public display.Discovery and Endeavour already are retired and being prepped formuseums across the country.

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